Eduard Admetlla i Lázaro

• Name — Eduard Admetlla • Birth Name — Eduard Admetlla i Lázaro • Birthplace — Barcelona, Spain • Died — 8 October 2019 (aged 95) • Place of death — Barcelona

Admetlla was born in Barcelona (Spain) on 10 January 1924. In 1948 at the age of 24, he started scuba diving. Initially he was an underwater fisherman and became a member of the Asociación de Pesca Submarina de Barcelona (APS) in Barcelona. He soon abandoned this activity as he came to the conclusion that being armed was not the way to go underwater. In 1954 he became a founding member of the Centro de Recuperación y de Investigaciones Submarinas (CRIS). Following that he became an underwater photographer and cameraman. He also invented underwater camera housings and was a test diver of scuba diving gear for the Spanish trade mark Nemrod. In 1953 he designed and tested successfully a prototype of a scuba diving breathing device. On 30 September 1957, at the Spanish naval base at Cartagena he beat the scuba diving world record by diving to 100 m. He penned five books describing his underwater experiences: La llamada de las profundidades, Mis amigos los peces, ¡Fondo!, Tierras y profundidades and Mi aventura submarina. As a follower of Hans Hass and Jacques Yves Cousteau's work, Admetlla i Lázar was a Spanish pioneer of underwater photography and filming. The first documentary TV series that he directed was Rumbo sur, filmed in black and white. After this experience he became professional and founded the film production company Volitans Films, S.L., which filmed the TV series: La llamada de las profundidades recorded in the Seychelles Islands; Nuestras islas, filmed in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands (Spain) and Tierras y profundidades in the Caribbean. All of these were broadcast by the Spanish television network RTVE. He also recorded the documentary television series La natura en profunditat for the Catalan Television network TV3. Eduard Admetlla i Lázaro died on 8 October 2019 at the age of 95.

• Year — Series title — Colour — Nº of chapters — Filming location — Television network • 1964 — Rumbo Sur — Black and white — 6 — Miramar Studio — RTVE • 1975 — La llamada de las profundidades — Colour — 6 — Seychelles Islands — RTVE • 1977 — Nuestras islas — Colour — 13 — Balearic and Canary Islands (Spain) — RTVE • 1980-81 — Tierras y profundidades — Colour — 13 — Jungle of Venezuela, Orinoco delta and Caribbean sea — RTVE • 1983 — La natura en profunditat — Colour — 13 — Venezuela, Caribbean, Costa Brava (Spain) and Galapagos Islands — TV3